I really didn't want them to know that
by AlwaysAnythingEverything
Summary: Voldemort and the Death Eaters read the Harry Potter books with Harry, and Voldemort developes an attraction to the young Boy Who Lived. HP/LV Slash.
1. Prologue

By: AlwaysAnythingEverything

Rating: T maybe M or R in later chapters

Parings: HP/LV

Disclaimer: Picks up a Harry Potter book. Nope, not my name on the cover, still says J.K Rowling. Sighs disapointedly.

Summary: Voldemort and the Death Eaters read the Harry Potter books with Harry, and Voldemort developes an attraction to the young Boy Who Lived.

Warnings: Slash in future chapters, possible spoilers.

Prologue: (Picks up at the end of chapter thirty-four, _The Forest Again_, in _Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_)

Harry opened his eyes to see a group of Death Eaters and Voldemort standing a few meters away from him. Looking around Harry saw that he was no longer in the forest but in a high ceilinged room. Frowning in confusion he made to stand up, but almost ended up face-first on the floor as a result of being chained to the chair in which he sat.

"Where, the bloody hell am I?" Harry called out, having finally found his voice.

"Language, Harry," said Voldemort softly, looking over from where he had been talking with his Death Eaters. "You are at Slytherin Manor, formerly known as the Riddle House," he added with a sneer.

"When are you going to kill me?" Harry asked, wanting to get rid of the Horcrux inside of him as soon as possible.

"As soon as we finish reading these seven books, I will decide how best to kill you," Voldemort said indicating a stack of books sitting on a small table next to him. "You see Harry, just as I was about to kill you, these books written about you fell out of the sky, and I have decided it would be best to learn everything about you before I kill you."

Conjuring up chairs for everyone in a circle, Voldemort sat down and picked up the book on the top of the pile, opening it to the first chapter.

After everyone was seated Voldemort spoke again: "Let us now _read Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. _Chapter One, _The Boy Who Lived." _

Thanks for taking the time to read. This is my first fic and I would really appreciate any reviews. I will try to update soon.


	2. The Boy Who Lived

By: AlwaysAnythingEverything

Rating: T maybe M or R in later chapters

Parings: HP/LV

Disclaimer: Picks up a Harry Potter book. Nope, not my name on the cover, still says J.K Rowling. Sighs disapointedly.

Summary: Voldemort and the Death Eaters read the Harry Potter books with Harry, and Voldemort developes an attraction to the young Boy Who Lived.

Warnings: Slash in future chapters, possible spoilers.

Chapter One, _The Boy Who Lived_:

After everyone was seated Voldemort spoke again: "Let us now _read Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. _Chapter One, _The Boy Who Lived." _

Looking around the room Harry counted twelve Death Eaters whom he recognised as Avery, Fenrir Greyback, Crabbe and Goyle Sr, Bellatrix Lestrange and her husband and brother in-law Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange, Augustus Rookwood, Yaxley, Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy, and Harry's school rival Draco Malfoy. Turning his attention back to Voldemort, Harry saw with a shock that he had managed to regain an appearance similar to his sixteen year old self, except he now looked to be about twenty-five, and the scarlet eyes remained. Resting across his shoulders was Nagini, and Harry was reminded that he still had to try and find a way to kill the snake.

**Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. **

"Who wants to be normal?" Draco wondered out loud.

"I wouldn't mind." Harry replied quietly.

**They were the last people you would expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense. **

**Mr Dursley was the director of a firm called Grunnings, which made drills. **

"What are drills?" Crabbe asked.

"Things Muggles use for building things, like houses," Harry replied.

**He was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck, although he did have a very large moustache. Mrs Dursley was thin and blonde and hand nearly twice the usual amount of neck, which came in very useful as she spent so much of her time craning over garden fences, spying on the neighbours. The Dursleys had a small son called Dudley and in their opinion there was no finer boy anywhere. **

"Wonderful family," Narcissa drawled sarcastically.

"Not really," Harry answered quietly. Everyone looked at him.

**The Dursleys had everything they wanted, but they also had a secret, and their greatest fear was that somebody would discover it. They didn't think they could bear it if anyone found out about the Potters. **

Several Death Eaters frowned in confusion.

**Mrs Potter was Mrs Dursleys sister, **

"These are your relatives?" Yaxley asked.

"Unfortunately," Harry muttered, causing everyone in the group to stare at him.

**But they hadn't met for several years; in fact, Mrs Dursley pretended she didn't have a sister, **

"WHAT!" came the outraged cry from Narcissa.

"You and Bellatrix pretended you don't have a sister either," Harry replied, making the two women look away from everyone else.

**Because her sister and her good-for-nothing husband were as unDursleyish **

"That's not even a word," Rodolphus said.

**As it was possible to be. The Dursleys shuddered to think what the neighbours would say if the Potters arrived in the street. The Dursleys knew that the Potters had a small son too, but they had never even seen him. This boy was another good reason for keeping the Potters away; they didn't want Dudley mixing with a child like that. **

"A child like what exactly?" hissed Voldemort. The entire group stared at him, confused.

**When Mr and Mrs Dursley woke up on the dull, grey Tuesday our story starts, there was nothing about the cloudy sky outside to suggest that strange and mysterious things would soon be happening all over the country. Mr Dursley hummed as he picked out his most boring tie for work and Mrs Dursley gossiped away happily as she wrestled a screaming Dudley into his highchair. **

"Hard to believe that there was actually a time when Dudley didn't want to be fed," Harry chuckled to himself.

**None of them noticed a large tawny owl flutter past the window.**

**At half-past eight, Mr. Dursley picked up his briefcase, pecked Mrs. Dursley on the cheek and tried to kiss Dudley goodbye but missed, because Dudley was now having a tantrum and throwing cereal at the walls.**

**"Little tyke," chortled Mr. Dursley as he left the house.**

"He encourages this?" Rookwood asked Harry, who nodded in reply.

**He got into his car and backed out of number four's drive.**

**It was on the corner of the street that he noticed the first sign of something peculiar - a cat reading a map. **

"Animagus," a few people said instantly.

**For a second, Mr. Dursley didn't realise what he had seen -then he jerked his head around to look again. There was a tabby cat **

"McGonagall!" Harry exclaimed, wondering what on earth his transfiguration teacher was doing at his relative's house.

"Why is McGonagall at your relative's house?" Lucius asked curiously.

"No idea," Harry said.

**Standing on the corner of Privet Drive, but there wasn't a map in sight.** **What could he have been thinking of? It must have been a trick of the light. Mr. Dursley blinked and stared at the cat. It stared back. As Mr. Dursley drove around the corner and up the road, he watched the cat in his mirror. It was now reading the sign that said Privet Drive - No, looking at the sign; cats couldn't read maps or signs. Mr. Dursley gave himself a little shake and put the cat out of his mind. As he drove towards town, he thought of nothing except a large order of drills he was hoping to get that day.**

"Not a cat," said Goyle, quietly.

**But on the edge of town, drills were driven out of his mind by something else. As he sat in the usual morning traffic jam, he couldn't help noticing that there seemed to be a lot of strangely dressed people about. People in cloaks.**

"WIZARDS!" several people cheered.

"What is strange about people in cloaks?" said Avery.

"Muggles don't wear cloaks," Voldemort informed the Death Eaters. "Some stupid fashion."

**Mr. Dursley couldn't bear people who dressed in funny clothes - the get-ups you saw on young people!** **He supposed this was some stupid new fashion. **

"Wizarding fashion, and it most certainly is not stupid!" Narcissa said indignantly. The Death Eaters nodded in agreement.

**He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel and his eyes fell on a huddle of these weirdoes **

"I detest that!" Rabastan yelled loudly.

**Standing quite close by. They were whispering excitedly together. Mr. Dursley was enraged to see that a couple of them weren't young at all; why, that man had to be older than he was, and wearing an emerald green cloak! **

"Good taste," Fenrir acknowledged approvingly.

**The nerve of him! But then it struck Mr. Dursley that this was probably some silly stunt - these people were obviously collecting for something ... yes, that would be it.** **The traffic moved on, and a few minutes later, Mr. Dursley arrived in the Grunnings car park, his mind back on drills.**

**Mr. Dursley always sat with his back to the window in his office on the ninth floor. If he hadn't, he might have found it harder to concentrate on drills that morning. **

Everyone frowned.

**He didn't see the owls swooping past in broad daylight, though the people down in the street did; they pointed and gazed open-mouthed as owl after owl sped overhead. **

"What's so odd about that?" Bellatrix asked.

"Owls are nocturnal," Lucius answered immediately.

**Most of them had never seen an owl even at night time. Mr. Dursley, however, had a perfectly normal, owl-free morning. He yelled a five different people. He made several important telephone calls and shouted a bit more. He was in a very good mood until lunch-time, when he thought he'd stretch his legs**

"Uncle Vernon never stretches his legs," Harry said frowning. "Maybe he's feeling unwell."

**And walk across the road to buy himself a bun from the baker's opposite. **

"Oh, that sounds more like him," Harry said blushing, as everyone laughed.

/He's cute when he blushes\ Harry heard Nagini tell Voldemort, and immediately stared in a different direction.

**He'd forgotten all about the people in cloaks until he passed a group of them next to the baker's. He eyed them angrily as he passed. He didn't know why, but they made him uneasy. This lot were whispering excitedly, too, and he couldn't see a single collecting tin. It was on his way back past them, clutching a large doughnut in a bag, that he caught a few words of what they were saying.**

**"The Potters, that's right, that's what I heard -"**

**"- yes, their son, Harry - "**

"Is this October 1st?" Yaxley asked.

"Must be."

**Mr. Dursley stopped dead. Fear flooded him. He looked back at the whisperers as if he wanted to say something to them, but thought better of it.**

**He dashed back across the road, hurried up to his office, snapped at his secretary not to disturb him, seized his telephone and had almost finished dialling his home number when he changed his mind. He put the receiver back down and stroked his moustache, thinking ...** **No, he was being stupid. **

"It took him that long to notice?" Harry wondered aloud.

Everyone laughed.

**Potter wasn't such an unusual name. **

"It is in the Wizarding world," Rodolphus informed Harry.

**He was sure there were lots of people called Potter who had a son called Harry. **

"A lot of witches and wizards began naming their sons Harry after that," Crabbe said.

**Come to think of it, he wasn't even sure his nephew was called Harry. He'd never even seen the boy. It might have been Harvey. Or Harold. **

Harry wrinkled his nose in disgust.

**There was no point in worrying Mrs. Dursley; she always got so upset at any mention of her sister. He didn't blame her - if he'd had a sister like that... but all the same, those people in cloaks...**

**He found it a lot harder to concentrate on drills that afternoon, and when he left the building at five o'clock, he was still so worried that he walked straight into someone just outside the door.**

**"Sorry," he grunted, as the tiny old man stumbled and almost fell. It was a few seconds before Mr. Dursley realised that the man was wearing a violet cloak. He didn't seem at all upset at being almost knocked to the ground. On the contrary, his face split into a wide smile and he said in a squeaky voice that made passers-by stare: "Don't be sorry my dear sir, for nothing could upset me today! Rejoice, for You-Know-Who has gone at last! **

Voldemort and the Death Eaters hissed, while Harry cheered, and had to duck to avoid being hit by a well aimed crucio sent his way from Voldemort.

**Even Muggles like your self should be celebrating this happy, happy day!" **

"If I ever find out any of you ever celebrated my disappearance, you shall expect to feel my displeasure," Voldemort growled angrily at the group.

"Get a new speech Tom, that one's just not scary," Harry called to Voldemort, who glared back at him.

**And the old man hugged Mr. Dursley around the middle **

"How did he manage that," Harry frowned.

**And walked off.**

**Mr. Dursley stood rooted to the spot. He had been hugged by a complete stranger. He also thought he had been called a Muggle, whatever that was.** **He was rattled. He hurried to his car and set off home, hoping he was imagining things, which he had never hoped before, because he didn't approve of imagination. **

"That has got to be one of the stupidest things I have ever heard of!" exclaimed Narcissa. "Who disapproves of imagination, honestly?"

**As he pulled into the driveway at number four, the first thing he saw - and it didn't improve his mood - was the tabby cat he'd spotted that morning. It was now sitting on his garden wall. He was sure it was the same one; it had the same markings around its eyes. **

**"Shoo!" said Mr Dursley loudly. **

**The cat didn't move. It just gave him a stern look. Was this normal cat behaviour, Mr. Dursley wondered? **

"Not an ordinary cat," Fenrir said smirking.

**Trying to pull himself together, he let himself into the house. He was still determined not to mention anything to his wife.**

**Mrs. Dursley had had a nice, normal day. She told him over dinner all about Mrs. Next Door's problems with her daughter and how Dudley had learnt a new word ("Shan't"). **

"He's never stopped using it since," Harry said sadly.

**Mr. Dursley tried to act normally. When Dudley had been put to bed, he went into the living-room in time to catch the last report on the evening news:**

**"And finally, bird-watchers everywhere have reported that the nation's owls have been behaving very unusually today. Although owls normally hunt at night and are hardly ever seen in daylight, there have been hundreds of sightings of these birds flying in every direction since sunrise. Experts are unable to explain why the owls have suddenly changed their sleeping pattern." The news reader allowed himself a grin. "Most mysterious. And now, over to Jim McGuffin with the weather. Going to be any more showers of owls tonight, Jim?"**

**"Well, Ted," said the weatherman, "I don't know about that, but it's not only the owls that have been acting oddly today. Viewers as far apart as Kent, Yorkshire and Dundee have been phoning in to tell me that instead of the rain that I promised yesterday, they've had a downpour of shooting stars! **

"How careless," sniffed Narcissa.

**Perhaps people have been celebrating Bonfire Night early – it's not until next week folks! But I can promise a wet night tonight."**

**Mr. Dursley sat frozen in his armchair. Shooting stars all over Britain? Owls flying by daylight? Mysterious people in cloaks all over the place? And a whisper, a whisper about the Potters ...**

**Mrs. Dursley came into the living-room carrying two cups of tea. It was no good. He'd have to say something to her. He cleared his throat nervously. "Er - Petunia, dear - you haven't heard from your sister lately, have you?"**

**As he expected, Mrs. Dursley looked shocked and angry. After all, they normally pretended she didn't have a sister.**

**"No," she said sharply. "Why?"**

**"Funny stuff on the news," Mr. Dursley mumbled. "Owls... shooting stars... and there were a lot of funny-looking people in town today..."**

**"So?" snapped Mrs. Dursley.**

**"Well, I just thought... maybe ... it was something to do with ... you know ... her lot."**

**Mrs. Dursley sipped her tea through pursed lips. Mr. Dursley wondered whether he dared tell her he'd heard the name 'Potter'.**

**He decided he didn't dare. **

"Wimp," said Harry and Avery at the same time.

**Instead he said, as casually as he could, "Their son - he'd be about Dudley's age now wouldn't he?"**

**"I suppose so," said Mrs. Dursley stiffly.**

**"What's his name again? Howard isn't it?" **

"Why do they always come up with the worst names?" Harry asked out loud.

**"Harry. Nasty, common name, if you ask me." **

"Better than Dudley," Voldemort sneered, making Harry stare. Why was Voldemort defending him?

"**Oh, yes," said Mr. Dursley, his heart sinking horribly. "Yes, I quite agree."**

**He didn't say another word on the subject as they went upstairs to bed. While Mrs. Dursley was in the bathroom, Mr. Dursley crept to the bedroom window and peered down into the front garden. The cat was still there. It was staring down Privet Drive as though it was waiting for something.**

**Was he imagining things?**

**Could all this have anything to do with the Potters? If it did ... if it got out that they were related to a pair of - well, he didn't think he could bear it.**

**The Dursleys got into bed. Mrs. Dursley fell asleep quickly but Mr. Dursley lay awake, turning it all over in his mind. His last, comforting thought before he fell asleep was that even if the Potters were involved, there was no reason for them to come near him and Mrs. Dursley. The Potters knew very well what he and Petunia thought about them and their kind ... He couldn't see how he and Petunia could get mixed up in anything that might be going on. He yawned and turned over. It couldn't affect them... **

"Yes it can," Harry said unhappily.

**How very wrong he was.**

**Mr. Dursley might have been drifting into an uneasy sleep, but the cat on the wall outside was showing no sign of sleepiness. It was sitting as still as a statue, its eyes fixed unblinkingly on the far corner of Privet Drive. It didn't so much as quiver when a car door slammed in the next street, nor when the two owls swooped overhead.** **In fact, it was nearly midnight before the cat moved at all.**

**A man appeared on the corner the cat had been watching, appeared so suddenly and silently you'd have thought he'd just popped out of the ground. **

"Apparation," said Crabbe smartly.

**The cat's tail twitched and its eyes narrowed.**

**Nothing like this man had been seen in Privet Drive. He was tall, thin and very old, judging by the silver of his hair and beard, which were both long enough to tuck into his belt. **

"Dumbledore," Voldemort said grumbling unhappily.

**He was wearing long robes, a purple cloak which swept the ground and high-heeled, buckled boots. His blue eyes were light, bright and sparkling behind half-moon spectacles and his nose was very long and crooked, as though it had been broken at least twice. This man's name was Albus Dumbledore. **

The Death Eaters glared at the book while Harry beamed happily.

**Albus Dumbledore didn't seem to realise that he had just arrived in a street where everything from his name to his boots was unwelcome. **

"He shouldn't be welcome anywhere," snarled Bellatrix angrily. The Death Eaters all nodded.

**He was busy rummaging in his cloak, looking for something. But he did seem to realise he was being watched, because he looked up suddenly at the cat, which was still staring at him from the other end of the street. For some reason, the sight of the cat seemed to amuse him. He chuckled and muttered, "I should have known."**

**He had found what he was looking for in his inside pocket.** **It seemed to be a silver cigarette lighter. He flicked it open, held it up in the air and clicked it. The nearest street lamp went out with a little pop. **

"That Deluminator is really useful," Harry said without thinking. Voldemort's red eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"And when have you used it?" Voldemort hissed softly.

Harry looked away and refused to answer.

**He clicked it again - the next lamp flickered into darkness. Twelve times he clicked the Put-Outer, until the only lights left in the whole street were two tiny pinpricks in the distance, which were the eyes of the cat watching him.** **If anyone looked out of their window now, even the beady-eyed Mrs. Dursley, they wouldn't be able to see anything that was happening down on the pavement. Dumbledore slipped the Put-Outer back inside his cloak and set off down the street towards number four, where he sat down on the wall next to the cat.** **He didn't look at it, but after a moment he spoke to it.**

**"Fancy seeing you here, Professor McGonagall." **

"HAH, I knew it!" Harry cried triumphantly.

**He turned to smile at the tabby, but it had gone. Instead he was smiling at a rather severe looking woman who was wearing square glasses exactly the shape of the markings the cat had had around its eyes. She, too, was wearing a cloak, an emerald one. Her black hair was drawn into a tight bun. She looked distinctly ruffled.**

**"How did you know it was me?" she asked.**

**"My dear Professor, I've never seen a cat sit so stiffly."**

**"You'd be stiff too if you'd been sitting on a brick wall all day," said Professor McGonagall. **

"All day?" Bellatrix asked.

**"All day? **

"You and Dumbledore think alike," Harry told her smirking as everyone laughed at her. Bellatrix growled angrily.

**When you could have been celebrating? I must have passed a dozen feasts and parties on my way here." **

Voldemort glared at everyone angrily.

**Professor McGonagall sniffed angrily.**

**"Oh yes, everyone's celebrating all right," she said impatiently. "You'd think they'd be a bit more careful, but no - even the Muggles noticed something's going on. It was on their news." She jerked her head back at the Dursleys' dark living-room window. "I heard it. Flocks of owls ... shooting stars ... Well, they're not completely stupid. They were bound to notice something. Shooting stars down in Kent - I'll bet that was Dedalus Diggle. He never had much sense."**

"**You can't blame them," said Dumbledore gently. "We've had precious little to celebrate for eleven years." **

"Well, we had plenty to celebrate for eleven years," said Rookwood smugly.

**"I know that," said Professor McGonagall irritably. "But that's no reason to lose our heads. People are being downright careless, out on the streets in broad daylight, not even dressed in Muggle clothes swapping rumours."**

**She threw a sharp, sideways glance at Dumbledore here, as though hoping he was going to tell her something, but he didn't, so she went on: "A fine thing it would be if, on the very day You-Know-Who seems to have disappeared at last, the Muggles found out about us all. I suppose he really has gone, Dumbledore?" **

"Pity you weren't gone for longer," Harry told Voldemort sadly.

Voldemort responded by hitting Harry with a crucio, and Harry spent the next five minutes writhing on the floor in agony.

**"It certainly seems so," said Dumbledore. "We have much to be thankful for. Would you care for a sherbet lemon?"**

"A what?" asked Draco.

**"A what?"**

Harry snickered, and Draco glared at him.

**"A sherbet lemon. They're a kind of Muggle sweet I'm rather fond of."**

**"No, thank you," said Professor McGonagall coldly, as though she didn't think this was the moment for sherbet lemons. **

"It's never the time for sherbet lemons," Voldemort hissed in irritation.

**"As I say, even if You-Know-Who has gone -"**

"Not for good, Old Man," Bellatrix said cackling madly.

Harry only sighed in disappointment.

**"My dear Professor, surely a sensible person like your self can call him by his name? All this 'You-Know-Who' nonsense - for eleven years I have been trying to persuade people to call him by his proper name: Voldemort". **

"LIAR!" Harry yelled suddenly, causing everyone to look at him. "His proper name is Tom Marvolo Riddle."

/If you EVER call me that again I WILL kill you\ Voldemort hissed angrily.

/Go ahead\ Harry responded.

Voldemort looked away in surprise, and Harry was left to wonder why he thought Voldemort's voice sounded attractive when he spoke Parseltongue.

**Professor McGonagall flinched, but Dumbledore, who was un-sticking two sherbet lemons, seemed not to notice.**

**"It all gets so confusing if we keep saying 'You-Know-Who.' I have never seen any reason to be frightened of saying Voldemort's name."**

**"I know you haven't," said Professor McGonagall, sounding half-exasperated, half-admiring. "But you're different. Everyone knows you're the only one You-Know - oh, all right, Voldemort was frightened of."**

"Not likely," Voldemort snarled.

**"You flatter me," said Dumbledore calmly. "Voldemort had powers I will never have."**

"Of course I do," replied Voldemort smugly.

**"Only because you're too - well - noble to use them."**

**"It's lucky it's dark. I haven't blushed so much since Madam Pomfrey told me she liked my new earmuffs."**

"EW! GROSS!" shrieked Draco.

"I could have gone my entire life without having that mental image, and yet the Old Coot still insists on irritating me even when he's dead!" Voldemort muttered in disgust.

**Professor McGonagall shot a sharp look at Dumbledore and said, "The owls are nothing to the rumours that are flying around. You know what everyone's saying? About why he's disappeared? About what finally stopped him?" It seemed that Professor McGonagall had reached the point she was most anxious to discuss, the real reason she had been waiting on a cold hard wall all day, for neither as a cat nor as a woman had she fixed Dumbledore with such a piercing stare as she did now.**

**It was plain that whatever 'everyone' was saying, she was not going to believe it until Dumbledore told her it was true. Dumbledore, however, was choosing another sherbet lemon and did not answer.**

**"What they're saying," she pressed on, "is that last night Voldemort turned up in Godric's Hollow. He went to find the Potters. The rumour is that Lily and James Potter are - are - that they're - dead.**"

Harry glared at Voldemort angrily, who looked away a slightly guilty look on his face.

**Dumbledore bowed his head. Professor McGonagall gasped.**

**"Lily and James ... I can't believe it ... I didn't want to believe it ... Oh, Albus ..."**

**Dumbledore reached out and patted her on the shoulder. "I know ... I know ..." he said heavily.**

**Professor McGonagall's voice trembled as she went on. "That's not all. They're saying he tried to kill the Potter's son, Harry. "But - he couldn't. He couldn't kill that little boy. **

/I still can't believe you were defeated by a one-year-old\ Nagini told Voldemort.

Harry laughed, and Voldemort looked murderous and began cursing under his breath.

**No one knows why, or how, but they're saying that when he couldn't kill Harry Potter, Voldemort's power somehow broke - and that's why he's gone."**

**Dumbledore nodded glumly.**

**"It's - it's true?" faltered Professor McGonagall. "After all he's done ... all the people he's killed ... he couldn't kill a little boy? It's just astounding ...of all the things to stop him ... but how in the name of heaven did Harry survive?" **

/LOVE! \ Harry said loudly, making Voldemort look furious.

**"We can only guess," said Dumbledore. "We may never know."**

**Professor McGonagall pulled out a lace handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes beneath her spectacles. Dumbledore gave a great sniff as he took out a watch from his pocket and examined it. It was a very odd watch. It had twelve hands but no numbers; instead, little planets were moving around the edge. **

"What? It's perfectly ordinary!" Avery said frowning.

"Not to Muggles," Harry replied.

**It must have made sense to Dumbledore, though, because he put it back in his pocket and said, "Hagrid's late. I suppose it was he who told you I'd be here, by the way?"**

**"Yes," said Professor McGonagall. "And I don't suppose you're going to tell me why you're here, of all places?"**

**"I've come to bring Harry to his aunt and uncle. They're the only family he has left now." **

"That is not true; Bellatrix, Andromeda and I are all related to you," Narcissa announced.

"I think he meant Muggle relatives," Harry replied, privately thinking that he'd rather not grow up with Draco or Death Eaters. Andromeda wouldn't have been so bad though.

"Wait, Potter and I are related?" Draco asked his parents, shuddering after he received a nod from both.

**"You don't mean - you can't mean the people who live here?" cried Professor McGonagall, jumping to her feet and pointing at number four. "Dumbledore - you can't."**

"**I've been watching them all day. You couldn't find two people who are less like us. And they've got this son - I saw him kicking his mother all the way up the street, screaming for sweets. **

"Even Draco isn't that spoilt," said Rodolphus, causing all three Malfoys to glare at him.

**Harry Potter come and live here!"**

**"It's the best place for him," said Dumbledore firmly. "His aunt and uncle will be able to explain everything to him when he's older. I've written them a letter."**

"I didn't find out about that letter until I was eleven!" Harry said furiously.

Everyone stared at him.

**"A letter?" repeated Professor McGonagall faintly, sitting back down on the wall. "Really Dumbledore, you think you can explain all this in a letter? These people will never understand him! He'll be famous - a legend - I wouldn't be surprised if today was known as Harry Potter Day in future**

"There is no Harry Potter day is there?" Harry asked dreading the answer.

"No, there isn't," Lucius replied.

Harry sighed in relief.

**- there will be books written about Harry - every child in our world will know his name!"**

"Unfortunately," Harry muttered.

**"Exactly," said Dumbledore, looking very seriously over the top of his half-moon glasses. "It would be enough to turn any boy's head. Famous before he can walk and talk! Famous for something he won't even remember! Can't you see how much better off he'll be, growing up away from all that until he's ready to take it?"**

**Professor McGonagall opened her mouth, changed her mind, swallowed and then said, "Yes - yes, you're right, of course. But how is the boy getting here Dumbledore?"**

**She eyed his cloak suddenly as though she thought he might be hiding Harry underneath it. **

"He'd better not be, he'd suffocate!" said Bellatrix to Harry's astonishment.

**"Hagrid's bringing him."**

"That Oaf!" screeched Bellatrix.

Harry glared at her until she looked away.

**You think it - wise - to trust Hagrid with something as important as this?"**

"I would trust Hagrid with my life," said Harry.

**"I would trust Hagrid with my life," said Dumbledore.**

**"I'm not saying his heart isn't in the right place," said Professor McGonagall grudgingly, "but you can't pretend he's not careless. He does tend to - what was that?"**

**A low rumbling sound had broken the silence around them. It grew steadily louder as they looked up and down the street for some sign of a headlight; it swelled to a roar as they both looked up at the sky - and a huge motorbike fell out of the air and landed on the road in front of them.**

**If the motorbike was huge, it was nothing to the man sitting astride it. He was almost twice as tall as a normal man and at least five times as wide. He looked simply too big to be allowed, and so wild - long tangles of bushy black hair and beard hid most of his face, he had hands the size of dustbin lids and his feet in their leather boots were like baby dolphins. **

"HAGRID!" cheered Harry happily.

**In his vast muscular arms he was holding a bundle of blankets.**

**"Hagrid," said Dumbledore, sounding relieved. "At last. And where did you get that motorbike?"**

**"Borrowed it, Professor Dumbledore, sir," said the giant, climbing carefully off the motorbike as he spoke. "Young Sirius Black lent it me."**

Harry looked away sadly at the memory of his deceased godfather.

"**I've got him, sir."**

**"No problems, were there?"**

**"No, sir - house was almost destroyed but I got him out all right before the Muggles started swarmin' around. He fell asleep as we were flyin' over Bristol."**

"It's a miracle he didn't drop you over a forest or something by accident," said Yaxley.

**Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall bent forward over the bundle of blankets. Inside, just visible, was a baby boy, fast asleep. **

"Awww," cooed Bellatrix and Narcissa to Harry's embarrassment.

Draco laughed.

**Under a tuft of jet-black hair over his forehead they could see a curiously shaped cut, like a bolt of lightning. **

"I actually liked that scar until I went to Hogwarts," Harry said.

Everyone looked at him.

**"Is that where - ?" whispered Professor McGonagall.**

**"Yes," said Dumbledore. "He'll have that scar for ever."**

**"Couldn't you do something about it, Dumbledore?"**

**"Even if I could, I wouldn't. Scars can come in useful. I have one myself above my left knee which is a perfect map of the London Underground. **

"I didn't know that," said Harry with interest.

**Well - give him here, Hagrid - we'd better get this over with."**

**Dumbledore took Harry in his arms and turned towards the Dursleys' house.**

**"Could I - could I say goodbye to him, sir?" asked Hagrid.**

**He bent his great shaggy head over Harry and gave him what must have been a very scratchy, whiskery kiss. **

"Lovely," sneered Narcissa.

**Then, suddenly, Hagrid let out a howl like a wounded dog.**

**"Shhh!" hissed Professor McGonagall. "You'll wake the Muggles!"**

**"S-s-sorry," sobbed Hagrid, taking out a large spotted handkerchief and burying his face in it. "But I c-c-can't stand it - Lily an' James dead - an' poor little Harry off ter live with Muggles -"**

**"Yes, yes, it's all very sad, but get a grip on yourself, Hagrid, or we'll be found," Professor McGonagall whispered, patting Hagrid gingerly on the arm as Dumbledore stepped over the low garden wall and walked to the front door. He laid Harry gently on the doorstep,**

"They left you on a doorstep?" said Crabbe looking shocked.

Harry nodded.

**Took a letter out of his cloak, tucked it inside Harry's blankets and then came back to the other two. For a full minute the three of them stood and looked at the little bundle; Hagrid's shoulders shook, Professor McGonagall blinked furiously and the twinkling light that usually shone from Dumbledore's eyes seemed to have gone out.**

"A miracle," muttered Voldemort. "I hate that bloody twinkle."

**"Well," said Dumbledore finally, "that's that. We've no business staying here. We may as well go and join the celebrations."**

**Yeah," said Hagrid in a very muffled voice. "I'll be takin' Sirius his bike back. G'night, Professor McGonagall - Professor Dumbledore, sir."**

**Wiping his streaming eyes on his jacket sleeve, Hagrid swung himself on to the motorbike and kicked the engine into life; with a roar it rose into the air and off into the night.**

**"I shall see you soon, I expect, Professor McGonagall," said Dumbledore, nodding to her. Professor McGonagall blew her nose in reply.**

**Dumbledore turned and walked back down the street. On the corner he stopped and took out the silver Put-Outer. He clicked it once and twelve balls of light sped back to their street lamps so that Privet Drive glowed suddenly orange and he could make out a tabby cat slinking around the corner at the other end of the street.**

**He could just see the bundle of blankets on the step of number four.**

**"Good luck, Harry,"**

"I'll need it," Harry said remembering.

Everyone looked at him in confusion.

**He murmured. He turned on his heel and with a swish of his cloak he was gone.**

**A breeze ruffled the neat hedges of Privet Drive, which lay silent and tidy under the inky sky, the very last place you would expect astonishing things to happen. Harry Potter rolled over inside his blankets without waking up. One small hand closed on the letter beside him and he slept on, not knowing he was special, not knowing he was famous, not knowing he would be woken in a few hours' time by Mrs. Dursley's scream**

Harry winced.

**As she opened the front door to put out the milk bottles, nor that he would spend the next few weeks being prodded and pinched by his cousin Dudley ...**

"WHAT!" everyone yelled, causing Harry to shrink down in his chair.

Voldemort looked over at Harry with a contemplating look on his face.

**He couldn't know that at this very moment, people meeting in secret all over the country were holding up their glasses and saying in hushed voices: "To Harry Potter - the boy who lived!"**

"And that's the end of the chapter," Voldemort announced. "Who would like to read next?"

"I would My Lord," Bellatrix spoke up eagerly.

Voldemort handed her the book, and she read: Chapter Two, _The Vanishing Glass. _

Thanks for taking the time to read. This is my first fic and I would really appreciate any reviews. I will try to update soon.


	3. The Vanishing Glass

By: AlwaysAnythingEverything

Rating: T maybe M or R in later chapters

Parings: HP/LV

Disclaimer: Picks up a Harry Potter book. Nope, not my name on the cover, still says J.K Rowling. Sighs disappointedly.

Summary: Voldemort and the Death Eaters read the Harry Potter books with Harry, and Voldemort developes an attraction to the young Boy Who Lived.

Warnings: Slash in future chapters, possible spoilers.

* * *

"I would My Lord," Bellatrix spoke up eagerly.

Voldemort handed her the book, and she read: "Chapter Two, _The Vanishing Glass." _

**Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephew on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all. The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living-room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr. Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls. **

"These must be the most boring people I have ever heard of," Draco said. "How on earth did you put up with them?"

Harry merely shrugged.

**Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball** **wearing different-coloured bobble hats**

A few people wrinkled their noses in disgust at this image.

** but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby,** a**nd now the photographs showed a large, blond boy riding his first bicycle, **

"What's a bicycle?" Goyle asked.

"A Muggle form of exercise and transport," Voldemort replied carelessly.

Many of the people in the room stared at him, obviously wondering why he knew about Muggle things.

"Just write down whatever you don't understand, and I'll explain it later," Harry sighed, not wanting to have to keep explaining things throughout the entire book.

Several of the Death Eaters conjured up quills and parchment.

**on a roundabout at the fair, playing a computer game** **with his father,** **being hugged and kissed by his mother.** **The room held no sign at all that another boy lived in the house, too. **

Many people in the room frowned at this.

**Yet Harry Potter was still there,** **asleep at the moment, but not for long. His Aunt Petunia was awake and it was her shrill voice which made the first noise of the day.**

**"Up! Get up! Now!"**

**Harry woke with a start. His aunt rapped on the door again.**

**"Up!" she screeched. **

"What is she, an owl?" Yaxley wondered aloud.

"No, more like a horse," answered Harry, thinking of his Aunt's bony frame.

Several people sniggered at this. Voldemort just looked faintly amused.

**Harry heard her walking towards the kitchen and then the sound of the frying pan being put on the cooker. He rolled on to his back and tried to remember the dream he had been having. It had been a good one. There had been a flying motorbike in it.**

"Not a dream," Rookwood said.

"I know that now thanks," Harry told him.

**He had a funny feeling he'd had the same dream before.**

"I can't believe you can even remember that," Fenrir muttered.

"That's not the only thing I can remember," Harry said under his breath, thinking about his parents deaths.

Nobody heard him.

**His aunt was back outside the door**

**"Are you up yet?" she demanded.**

**"Nearly," said Harry.**

**"Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon. And don't you dare let it burn, I want everything perfect on Duddy's birthday."**

**Harry groaned. **

"I suppose you were just annoyed at everyone else paying attention to someone other than you for a change, Potter," Draco sneered.

Harry didn't answer.

**"What did you say?" his aunt snapped through the door.**

**"Nothing, nothing ..."**

**Dudley's birthday - how could he have forgotten? Harry got slowly out of bed and started looking for socks.** **He found a pair under his bed and, after pulling a spider off one of them,**

"Honestly, Potter, don't you ever clean your room?" Draco spoke up again, shuddering in disgust.

** put them on. Harry was used to spiders, because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them, **

"What has a cupboard got to do with anything?" Rabastan asked voicing what many others were thinking.

Seeing that Harry was not about to answer Bellatrix turned her eyes back to the book and began reading.

Harry closed his eyes and waited for them begin laughing at him.

**and that was where he slept. **

For a moment there was complete silence in the room, then...

"WHAT?!" yelled Narcissa, Avery and Voldemort simultaneously.

"Are you joking Potter?" Draco asked in disbelief.

"FILTHY MUGGLES, HOW DARE THEY DISRESPECT THEIR BETTERS?" shrieked Bellatrix.

Eyes still closed, Harry flinched inwardly and turned his head away from the loud shriek. Feeling something heavy sliding across his shoulders, Harry's eyes suddenly snapped open and he would have jumped out of his seat in surprise had he not been chained to it, as he spotted Nagini now resting across his shoulders.

/Poor Hatchling\ Nagini hissed. /Can we keep him Tom?\

/He is our prisoner Nagini, not a pet and I thought I told you earlier not to go near him. And why must you insist on calling me that ridiculous name?\ Voldemort said.

When Nagini didn't answer him or move, and Harry didn't look up from where he had begun staring at the floor, Voldemort told the Death Eaters to be quiet as they discussed Harry's living conditions at the Dursleys.

"Read," He hissed at Bellatrix, inwardly fuming at Harry's obvious abuse and Nagini calling him Tom.

**When he was dressed he went down the hall into the kitchen. The table was almost hidden beneath all Dudley's birthday presents.**

"Spoilt," Harry heard someone say quietly.

**It looked as though Dudley had got the new computer he wanted, not to mention the second television** **and the racing bike. Exactly why Dudley wanted a racing bike was a mystery to Harry, as Dudley was very fat and hated exercise - unless of course it involved punching somebody. Dudley's favourite punch-bag was Harry, **

"Were you abused Potter?" Narcissa asked.

"Yes," Harry mumbled.

By now Voldemort was furious. This was exactly why he wanted rid the world of Muggles. Now that he finally had more time to carry out his plans, he hoped to remove all Wizarding children from the care of Muggles and place them amongst Wizarding families instead.

**but he couldn't often catch him. Harry didn't look it, but he was very fast. **

"I still haven't forgotten that sprint he made in the graveyard," Harry heard Goyle tell Crabbe.

**Perhaps it had something to do with living in a dark cupboard, but Harry had always been small and skinny for his age.**

"Abuse," Harry heard somebody mutter.

**He looked even smaller and skinnier than he really was because all he had to wear were old clothes of Dudley's** **and Dudley was about four times bigger than he was. **

"Ewww," said Draco scrunching up his nose in disgust.

**Harry had a thin face, knobbly knees, black hair** **and bright-green eyes.** **He wore round glasses **

"Honestly Potter, why on earth haven't you gotten your vision corrected by now?" demanded Narcissa.

"I didn't know you could," Harry mumbled.

Narcissa got up from her seat next to Lucius, and walked over to where Harry sat chained in his chair. "Renovo Oculus," she said pointing her wand at one of Harry's eyes after removing his glasses, and then proceeded to perform the same spell on his other eye, before returning to her seat. Immediately Harry's vision began to clear, and he was able to see properly.

"Thanks," Harry said looking back down at his feet blushing.

On the other side of the room Voldemort began to run his eyes up and down the boy with interest, before mentally berating himself. He did NOT find his enemy attractive damnit!

**held together by a lot of Sellotape because of all the times Dudley had punched him on the nose.**

A lot of the people in the room growled in anger at this.

**The only thing Harry liked about his appearance was a very thin scar on his forehead which was shaped like a bolt of lightning.** **He had had it as long as he could remember and the first question he could ever remember asking his Aunt Petunia was how he had got it.**

"**In the car crash when your parents died," **

"WHAT!" shrieked Bellatrix in outrage. "How DARE they compare our lord to a filthy Muggle invention?

**she had said. "And don't ask questions." **

"But how will he learn anything?" asked Fenrir in confusion.

**_Don't ask questions_**** - that was the first rule for a quiet life with the Dursleys.**

**Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen as Harry was turning over the bacon.**

"**Comb your hair!" he barked, by way of a morning greeting. **

"Yes do comb your hair Potter, it looks utterly disgraceful," Lucius drawled.

"It doesn't matter what I do, it won't lie flat," Harry replied dully.

**About once a week, Uncle Vernon looked over the top of his newspaper and shouted that Harry needed a haircut. Harry must have had more haircuts than the rest of the boys in his class put together, but it made no difference, his hair simply grew that way - all over the place.**

**Harry was frying eggs** **by the time Dudley arrived in the kitchen with his mother. Dudley looked a lot like Uncle Vernon. He had a large, pink face, not muck neck, small, watery blue eyes and thick, blond hair that lay smoothly on his thick, fat head.**

"Ugh," Harry heard several people grumble in disgust.

**Aunt Petunia often said that Dudley looked like a baby angel - Harry often said that Dudley looked like a pig in a wig. **

At this there was a huge burst of laughter from the assembled Death Eaters. Even Voldemort looked faintly amused.

**Harry put the plates of egg and bacon on the table, which was difficult as there wasn't much room. Dudley, meanwhile, was counting his presents. His face fell.**

**"Thirty-six,"**

"WHAT! THIRTY-SIX presents?" Draco exclaimed. Even I don't get THAT many!"

"And you never will son," came the replies from both his mother and father.

**he said, looking up at his mother and father. "That's two less than last year."**

"He's complaining," said Rodolphus incredulously.

"**Darling, you haven't counted Auntie Marge's present, see, it's here under this big one from Mummy and Daddy."**

"**All right, thirty-seven then," said Dudley, going red in the face.** **Harry, who could see a huge Dudley tantrum coming on, began wolfing down his bacon as fast as possible in case Dudley turned the table over.**

**Aunt Petunia obviously scented danger too, because she said quickly, "And we'll buy you another ****_two_**** presents while we're out today. How's that, popkin? ****_Two_**** more presents. Is that all right?"**

**Dudley thought for a moment. It looked like hard work.** **Finally he said slowly, "So I'll have thirty ... thirty ..."**

"Kid can't even count," Avery muttered to Rookwood.

**"Thirty nine, sweetums," said Aunt Petunia.**

**"Oh." Dudley sat down heavily and grabbed the nearest parcel. "All right then."**

**Uncle Vernon chuckled. **

**"Little tyke** **wants his money's worth, just like his father.** **Atta boy, Dudley!" He ruffled Dudley's hair**.

"They encourage this kind of behaviour?" asked Goyle looking shocked.

Harry nodded.

**At that moment the telephone rang** **and Aunt Petunia went to answer it while Harry and Uncle Vernon watched Dudley unwrap the racing bike, **

The Death Eaters began writing things down.

**a cine-camera, a remote control airplane, sixteen new computer games and a video recorder.** **He was ripping the paper off a gold wristwatch when Aunt Petunia came back from the telephone, looking both angry and worried.**

**"Bad news, Vernon," she said. "Mrs. Figg's **

"That name rings a bell," said Avery thoughtfully.

**broken her leg. She can't take him." She jerked her head in Harry's direction.**

**Dudley's mouth fell open in horror, but Harry's heart gave a leap. Every year on Dudley's birthday his parents took him and a friend out for the day, to adventure parks, hamburger bars or the cinema. Every year, Harry was left behind with Mrs. Figg, a mad old lady who lived two streets away.** **Harry hated it there. The whole house smelled of cabbage and Mrs. Figg made him look at photographs all the cats she'd ever owned.**

**"Now what?" said Aunt Petunia, looking furiously at Harry as though he'd planned this. Harry knew he ought to feel sorry that Mrs. Figg had broken her leg, but it wasn't easy when he reminded himself it would be a whole year before he had to look at Tibbles, Snowy, Mr. Paws and Tufty again.**

Many of the Death Eaters gave Harry sympathetic glances at this.

**"We could phone Marge," Uncle Vernon suggested.**

**"Don't be silly, Vernon, she hates the boy."**

"The feelings mutual," spat Harry venomously.

**The Dursleys often spoke about Harry like this, as though he wasn't there - or rather, as though he was something very nasty that couldn't understand them, like a slug.**

**"What about what's-her-name, your friend - Yvonne?"**

**"On holiday in Majorca," snapped Aunt Petunia.**

**"You could just leave me here," Harry put in hopefully (he'd be able to watch what he wanted on television for a change and maybe even have a go on Dudley's computer.)**

**Aunt Petunia looked as though she'd just swallowed a lemon.**

**"And come back and find the house in ruins?" she snarled.**

"**I won't blow up the house," **

Only Aunt Marge, Harry thought to himself, and Mr Weasley was the one to blow up the fireplace not me.

**said Harry, but they weren't listening.**

**"I suppose we could take him to the zoo,"** **said Aunt Petunia slowly, "... and leave him in the car ..."**

**"That car's new, he's not sitting in it alone ..."**

"They value a car over their nephew?" asked Bellatrix incredulously.

Harry just nodded. The Death Eaters looked outraged.

**Dudley began to cry loudly.** **In fact he wasn't really crying, it had been years since he'd really cried, but he knew that if he screwed up his face and wailed, his mother would give him anything he wanted.**

**"Dinky Duddydums, **

"Dinky Duddydums," spluttered Draco in revulsion. "What kind of a name is THAT?!"

"Oh believe me, she's come up with a lot more worse names for him than that," Harry sniggered.

**don't cry,** **Mummy won't let him spoil your special day!" she cried, flinging her arms around him.**

"**I ... don't ... want ... him ... t-t-to come!" Dudley yelled between huge pretend sobs. "He always sp-spoils everything!" He shot Harry a nasty grin through the gap in his mother's arms.**

**Just then, the doorbell rang – "Oh, Good Lord, they're here!" said Aunt Petunia frantically - and a moment later, Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss,** **walked in with his mother.** **Piers was a scrawny boy with a face like a rat.**

For a moment Harry was reminded horribly of Pettigrew.

**He was usually the one who held people's arms behind their backs while Dudley hit them.**

A few people hissed angrily at this.

**Dudley stopped pretending to cry at once. **

**Half an hour later, Harry, who couldn't believe his luck, was sitting in the back of the Dursleys' car with Piers and Dudley, on the way to the zoo for the first time in his life.** **His aunt and uncle hadn't been able to think of anything else to do with him, but before they'd left, Uncle Vernon had taken Harry aside.**

**"I'm warning you," he had said, putting his large purple face right up close to Harry's,** **"I'm warning you now, boy -any funny business, anything at all - and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas."**

"WHAT! You mean they kept you in there as punishment?" asked Fenrir looking scandalised.

Harry nodded his head in answer.

**"I'm not going to do anything," said Harry, "honestly ..."**

**But Uncle Vernon didn't believe him. No ever did. **

They still don't Harry thought sadly to himself, thinking about his fifth year.

**The problem was, strange things often happened around Harry **

Magic, several people thought to themselves.

**and it was just no good telling the Dursleys he didn't make them happen.**

**Once, Aunt Petunia, tired of Harry coming back from the barber's looking as though he hadn't been at all, had taken a pair of kitchen scissors and cut his hair so short he was almost bald except for his fringe,** **which she left 'to hide that horrible scar'.**

Draco looked scandalised at this, and glanced over at Harry with a sympathetic look on his face.

**Dudley laughed himself silly at Harry, who spent a sleepless night imagining school the next day, where he was already laughed at for his baggy clothes **

"Why didn't you just get new ones?" Goyle wondered aloud.

"My Aunt and Uncle refused to waste money on me and gave me Dudley's old things," Harry informed him.

Everybody in the room looked disgusted at this. Narcissa was wondering if she could possibly convince her Lord to let her take Harry clothes shopping.

**and his Sellotaped glasses. Next morning, however, he had got up to find his hair exactly as it had been before Aunt Petunia had sheared it off.** **He had been given a week in his cupboard for this,**

"A WEEK!" Narcissa shrieked in outrage, and the room was filled with muttering.

**even though he had tried to explain that he ****_couldn't_**** explain how it had grown back so quickly.**

**Another time, Aunt Petunia had been trying to force him into a revolting old jumper of Dudley's (brown with orange bobbles).**

"How did you live with these Muggles?" Draco wondered. "They have absolutely no sense of style whatsoever."

**The harder she tried to pull it over his head, the smaller it seemed to become, until finally it might have fitted a glove puppet, but certainly wouldn't fit Harry.** **Aunt Petunia had decided it must have shrunk in the wash and, to his great relief, Harry wasn't punished.**

**On the other hand, he'd got into terrible trouble for being found on the roof of the school kitchens.** **Dudley's gang had been chasing him as usual** **when, as much to Harry's surprise as anyone else's, there he was sitting on the chimney.**

"Apparation," Voldemort breathed, eyeing Harry speculatively. Perhaps the boy was more powerful than he'd originally thought.

**The Dursley's had received a very angry letter from Harry's headmistress telling them Harry had been climbing school buildings. But all he tried to do (as he shouted at Uncle Vernon through the locked door of his cupboard)** **was jump behind the big bins outside the kitchen doors. Harry supposed that the wind must have caught him in mid-jump.**

**But today, nothing was going to go wrong. **

"Something went wrong didn't it," Rodolphus guessed.

Harry nodded stiffly.

**It was even worth being with Dudley and Piers to be spending the day somewhere that wasn't school, his cupboard or Mrs. Figg's cabbage-smelling living-room.**

**While he drove, Uncle Vernon complained to Aunt Petunia. He liked to complain about things: people at work, Harry, the council, Harry, the bank and Harry** **were just a few of his favourite subjects. **

"Quite a popular subject aren't you Potter?" Avery commented.

**This morning, it was motorbikes. **

**"... roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums," he said, as a motorbike overtook them.**

**"I had a dream about a motorbike," said Harry, remembering suddenly. "It was flying."**

"Not a dream," Voldemort said.

"I realise that now, thank you very much," Harry scowled.

**Uncle Vernon nearly crashed into the car in front. He turned right around in his seat and yelled at Harry, his face like a gigantic beetroot with a moustache, "MOTORBIKES DON'T FLY!"**

**Dudley and Piers sniggered.**

**"I know they don't," said Harry. **"**It was only a dream."**

**But he wished he hadn't said anything. If there was one thing the Dursleys hated even more than his asking questions, it was his talking about anything acting in a way it shouldn't, no matter if it was in a dream or even in a cartoon - they seemed to think he might get dangerous ideas.**

**It was a very sunny Saturday and the zoo was crowded with people. The Dursleys bought Dudley and Piers large chocolate ice-creams at the entrance** **and then, because the smiling lady in the van had asked Harry what he wanted before they could hurry him away, they bought him a cheap lemon ice lolly.** **It wasn't bad either, Harry thought,** **licking it as they watched a gorilla scratching its head and looking remarkably like Dudley, except that it wasn't blond. **

"First a pig, and now a gorilla?" Rookwood remarked as everybody snorted with laughter. "Your cousins not a very attractive kid is he?"

"He began to look a lot like a young killer whale a few years after that," Harry informed him remembering the summer before his fourth year.

Everyone simply laughed harder at that.

**Harry had the best morning he'd had in a long time. He was careful to walk a little way apart from the Dursleys so that Dudley and Piers, who were starting to get bored with the animals by lunchtime, wouldn't fall back on their favourite hobby of hitting him.** **They ate in the zoo restaurant and when Dudley had a tantrum because his knickerbockers glory wasn't big enough,** **Uncle Vernon bought him another one and Harry was allowed to finish the first.**

**Harry felt, afterwards, that he should have known it was all too good to last. **

"It always is," Harry sighed quietly to himself, causing the Death Eaters closest to look at him with sympathetic expressions, and was that guilt?

**After lunch they went to the reptile house.**

Voldemort who had begun to look bored at this point, sat up straighter in his chair and leaned forwards eagerly.

**It was cool and dark in here, with lit windows all along the walls. Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone.** **Dudley and Piers wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick, man-crushing pythons.**

/Sssnakesss are awesssome\ hissed a voice from around his neck, startling Harry. He'd almost forgotten that the large snake was still there, and wondered again how he was supposed to kill her.

**Dudley quickly found the largest snake in the place.** **It could have wrapped its body twice around Uncle Vernon's car, and crushed it into a dustbin -** **but at the moment it didn't look in the mood.** **In fact, it was fast asleep.**

**Dudley stood with his nose pressed against the glass, staring at the glistening brown coils**.

/Poor thing\ Nagini spoke up again. /I wouldn't want a pig ssstaring at me either\ she hissed, apparently having come to the conclusion that Dudley was in fact a pig.

Voldemort chuckled at this. /I believe Dudley isss a Muggle boy Nagini, not a pig\ he informed her.

**"Make it move," he whined at his father. Uncle Vernon tapped on the glass, **

/Horrible Muggle\

**but the snake didn't budge.**

**"Do it again," Dudley ordered.** **Uncle Vernon rapped the glass smartly with his knuckles, but the snake just snoozed on.**

**"This is boring," Dudley moaned. He shuffled away.**

**Harry moved in front of the tank and looked intently at the snake. He wouldn't have been surprised if it had died of boredom itself - no company except stupid people drumming their fingers on the glass trying to disturb it all day long. It was worse than having a cupboard for a bedroom, where the only visitor was Aunt Petunia hammering on the door to wake you up** **- at least he got to visit the rest of the house. **

"Interesting hypothesis you have there Potter," Lucius noted.

**The snake suddenly opened its beady eyes. Slowly, very slowly, it raised its head until its eyes were level with Harry's.**

**_It winked._**

"You know, before I went to the zoo I always thought snakes didn't have eyelids," Harry said thoughtfully.

"Only wizards and witches are able to see a snakes eyelids," Goyle informed him.

**Harry stared. Then he looked quickly around to see if anyone was watching. They weren't. He looked back at the snake and winked, too.**

**The snake jerked its head towards Uncle Vernon and Dudley, then raised its eyes to the ceiling. It gave Harry a look that said quite plainly: ****_"I get that all the time."_**

**I know," Harry murmured through the glass, though he wasn't sure the snake could hear him. "It must be really annoying."**

**The snake nodded vigorously**

**"Where do you come from, anyway?" Harry asked.**

**The snake jabbed its tail at a little sign next to the glass. Harry peered at it. **

**_Boa Constrictor, Brazil. _**

"A good snake then," Voldemort commented.

**"Was it nice there?"**

**The boa constrictor jabbed its tail at the sign again and Harry read on: ****_This specimen was bred in the zoo._**** "Oh, I see - so you've never been to Brazil?"**

**As the snake shook its head, a deafening shout behind Harry made both of them jump. "DUDLEY! MR DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT IT'S DOING!"**

/How rude, interrupting a private conversssation\ Nagini hissed, baring her fangs angrily at the book.

**Dudley came waddling towards them as fast as he could. **

Which, Harry thought to himself in satisfaction, was not really very fast at all.

**"Out of the way, you," he said, punching Harry in the ribs.**

Narcissa scowled in displeasure at this.

**Caught by surprise, Harry fell hard on the concrete floor. What came next happened so fast no one saw how it happened - one second, Piers and Dudley were leaning right up close to the glass, the next, they had leapt back with howls of horror. **

Everybody eagerly leaned forwards in their seats at this.

**Harry sat up and gasped; the glass front of the boa constrictor's tank had vanished. **

Several people snickered.

**The great snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out on to the floor - people throughout the reptile house screamed and started running for the exits.**

**As the snake slid swiftly past him, Harry could have sworn a low, hissing voice said, " Brazil, here I come ... Thanksss, amigo."**

It suddenly occurred to Harry that nobody had been surprised at all about his speaking Parseltongue. But then, he reasoned with himself, either Malfoy or Snape had probably told everyone that by now anyway.

**The keeper of the reptile house was in shock.**

**"But the glass," he kept saying, "where did the glass go?"**

"Into non-being, which is to say, everything," Harry said suddenly, remembering Professor McGonagall's words from the battle. Speaking of the battle Harry wondered exactly what had happened since he had entered the forbidden forest. Had the battle finished already?

**The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong sweet tea while he apologized over and over again.** **Piers and Dudley could only gibber. As far as Harry had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed,** **but by the time they were all back in Uncle Vernon's car, Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg,** **while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death.** **But, worst of all, for Harry at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry was talking to it, weren't you, Harry?"**

**Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house before starting on Harry. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go - cupboard - stay - no meals,"**

Many people yelled in outrage.

"They starved you?!" Narcissa exclaimed, outraged.

Harry nodded his head yet again. Narcissa looked livid.

**before he collapsed into a chair and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy.**

**Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later, wishing he had a watch. He didn't know what time it was and he couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, he couldn't risk sneaking in to the kitchen for some food. **

"No wonder you never got caught out of bed at school, Potter," Draco grumbled to himself in annoyance. "You'd already had practice."

Harry just smirked at him, making Draco glare at him in return.

**He'd lived with the Dursleys almost ten years, ten miserable years, as long as he could remember, ever since he'd been a baby and his parents had died in that car crash. He couldn't remember being in the car when his parents had died.** **Sometimes, when he strained his memory during long hours in his cupboard, he came up with a strange vision: a blinding flash of green light** **and a burning pain on his forehead. **

"You must have a good memory, Potter," Crabbe said in awe.

"I suppose."

Voldemort couldn't help but feel something that felt suspiciously like guilt at this point.

**This, he supposed, was the crash,** **though he couldn't imagine where the green light came from.** **He couldn't remember his parents at all.** **His aunt and uncle never spoke about them, and of course he was forbidden to ask questions. There were no photographs of them in the house.**

**When he had been younger, Harry had dreamed and dreamed of some unknown relation coming to take him away, but it had never happened;** **the Dursleys were his only family.** **Yet sometimes he thought (or maybe hoped) that strangers in the street seemed to know him. Very strange strangers they were, too.** **A tiny man in a violet top hat had bowed to him once while out shopping with Aunt Petunia and Dudley. **

"That sounds like Dedalus Diggle," Rabastan noted.

**After asking Harry furiously if he knew the man, Aunt Petunia had rushed them out of the shop without buying anything. A wild-looking woman dressed in all green has waved merrily at him once on a bus. A bald man in a very long purple cloak had actually shaken his hand in the street the other day then walked away without another word. The weirdest thing about all these people was the way they seemed to vanish the second Harry tried to get a closer look. **

"Apparation," somebody murmured quietly.

**At school, Harry had no one. Everybody knew that Dudley's gang hated that odd Harry Potter in his baggy old clothes and broken glasses, and nobody liked to disagree with Dudley's gang. **

"A bunch of cowards the lot of them," Lucius sneered disdainfully.

"That's the end of the chapter my Lord," Bellatrix said closing the book. "Who would like to read next?"

"I will," Lucius volunteered. Bellatrix handed him the book, and he opened it to the next chapter and read: "Chapter Three, _The Letters from No One_."

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Please review, hopefully I will update a LOT sooner next time!


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